\"A dim view of humanity\" -Lee Judge
In 2016, Spotify began summarizing the listening habits of their users with their “Spotify Wrapped” feature that made it a bit more palatable that they were collecting all that data on you. You could share with friends all of your most-listened-to artists (that’s a lot of Michael McDonald, my friend), your favorite genres, and how […]
2 months ago | 2 reads
MLB.com lists a comeback candidate for each team. Royals: 2B Jonathan IndiaIndia had a tough first season with the Royals after they acquired him to be their leadoff man in a trade with the Reds following the 2024 season. His stats across the board were down, slashing .233/.323/.346 with an 89 wRC+. However, his strikeout rate […]
2 months ago | 4 reads
David Lesky gets deep into the Matt Strahm trade. Before I say anything even slightly negative about this trade, I will say that if he is anywhere near the 2025 version of himself, the Royals bullpen is way better today than it was before this deal. I’m a little bit worried about his age and […]
2 months ago | 4 reads
The Kansas City Royals reportedly miss out on a key deadline to make their own move to Kansas. The Royals did “not have a deal on the table for consideration” at yesterday’s meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council for a new ballpark in Kansas, according to Alatidd, Harvel & Keating of the TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL. It was the […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
It’s official: a team that called the Truman Sports Complex home is moving to a brand new stadium. Interestingly, the first team to declare their intentions to move was not the Kansas City Royals, who have been broadcasting their intentions of building a new stadium for years. Rather, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs who broke […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
As 2025 draws to a close, MLB teams have less than two months before they begin reconvening in warmer climates for spring training. Many teams still have yet to accomplish their offseason goals, and several big free agents remain unsigned. The Royals have been active in upgrading their roster, but still have yet to acquire […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
Ben Clemens at Fangraphs evaluates the Matt Strahm trade. For me, Strahm is already the best reliever in Kansas City. But even if you’re an Estévez truther, Strahm is at worst the second banana. Lucas Erceg and John Schreiber are nice middle relievers. I’m curious to see whether Daniel Lynch IV can reinvent himself out of the bullpen. Offseason trade acquisition Nick […]
3 months ago | 3 reads
This is a story I’ve been thinking about writing for the last five years. Maybe it will resonate with some readers. Maybe it will flop. Some will agree with it; others may attack me for writing it. Why do people write, anyway? To tell a story? To entertain? To push a point of view? All […]
3 months ago | 1 read
At first glance, the 2026 ZiPS projections for the Royals look familiar. ZIPS is the projection system formulated by Dan Szymborski at Fangraphs that looks at historical playing aging curves and applies them to current players. The topline projected total for the Royals in 2026 is similar to last year’s, with modest gains on the […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
What does baseball look like when you step behind the lens? In this episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jeremy “Hokius” Greco sits down with Minda Haas Kuhlmann, independent sports photographer for the Omaha Storm Chasers, to explore the art, access, and storytelling that define modern sports photography. Minda traces her path into photography through […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
We are now fully in the depths of winter. The Chiefs, for the first time in a decade, have failed to achieve the playoffs. So Kansas City sports fans, still lacking an NBA or NHL team, can only spend the cold months waiting for Spring Training. It will be here soon, but not soon enough. […]
3 months ago | 7 reads
Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic has the latest on Royals trade talks. [$] The Royals had been telling clubs and agents they were operating with limited financial flexibility. But ownership allowed the front office to extend for Strahm, who became a more pressing addition after the Royals traded lefty reliever Angel Zerpa to the Milwaukee […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
J.J. Picollo welcomes Matt Strahm to the Royals, as covered by Anne Rogers. “We were all very, very excited when we realized this was a possibility for our team,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “We know Matt very well as a person, as a player, what type of competitor he is. And when you’re talking […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
Four score and seven years ago, the Kansas City Royals told the world that they’d be looking to construct a new stadium. Technically, that official statement is only three years old, but it feels like an eternity considering how so much and yet how so little has happened in the Royals stadium timeline. Every so […]
3 months ago | 3 reads
The Royals have signed utility player Abraham Toro to a minor league deal, according to writer Daniel Álvarez-Montes. Toro spent last year with the Red Sox and hit .239/.289/.371 with seven home runs in 77 games. He is a 28-year-old switch-hitter who is capable of playing all over the field, although he has spent most […]
3 months ago | 6 reads
What do the numbers actually say about the Kansas City Royals? In this episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jacob Milham and Jeremy Greco welcome Dan Szymborski, creator of ZiPS, for a deep dive into the Royals’ latest projections and what they reveal about the team’s short- and long-term outlook. The conversation begins with how […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
The Royals managed to jump the leak train entirely when they abruptly announced this morning that they had acquired left-handed relief pitcher Matt Strahm in exchange for right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan. This trade must have come together quickly and easily because most transactions during the MLB offseason are broken hours, if not days, in advance […]
3 months ago | 8 reads
Let’s start with a story about Horace Stoneham. Stoneham owned the New York Giants starting in the mid-30s through the mid-70s. After the 1957 season, Stoneham and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley moved both of their teams out of New York and into California, settling in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. Before the move, […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
The Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council will meet Monday to consider a deal to lure the Chiefs to Kansas. Top Kansas lawmakers have previously said they would not entertain a stadium deal after the end of the year, despite the fact that the STAR bonds program was renewed until June 2026. The Royals will not be […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
Seeking a solution to the lack of outfield offense, the Royals went out and acquired a trio of players in advance of the 2025 trade deadline. The results varied, but I admired the attempt to do … something. Those guys, the subjects of this article, are Mike Yastrzemski, Randal Grichuk, and Adam Frazier. Yaz was […]
3 months ago | 6 reads
Welcome back reader! If you are reading this, you’ve probably already read the earlier entry breaking down Royals hitter performances in the Arizona Fall League. If you haven’t, go back and read it! We’re back today to do the same for pitchers. Five pitchers from the Royals organization (as of the beginning of AFL play) took the […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
Hear from J.J. Picollo and Maikel Garcia on the latter’s recent contract extension: Craig Brown at Into the Fountains analyzes the adjustments that fueled Maikel Garcia’s breakout season: Honestly, there’s not much of a difference between the two seasons other than the space between his feet and straightening of his front foot. Everything else is […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
I think about the Kansas City Royals’ ALDS series versus the New York Yankees quite frequently, about as much as I think about the Roman Empire. When I think about the Royals dropping that series, I often think about the Yankees hitters compared to the Royals hitters and how many more pitches the Bronx hitters […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
Kansas City sports fans are psychopaths, but, like, the “Midwest Nice” kind of psychopath. Plenty of places have affinity for a certain team–like St. Louis and the Cardinals, Chicago and the Cubs, Dallas and the Cowboys–but Kansas City is unique in that the city will support well-run teams with their whole chest no matter the […]
3 months ago | 8 reads
Leawood Mayor Marc Elkins is the latest in a long line of stakeholders opposing a possible Kansas City Royals move to the Aspira campus. “Based on media reports and direct feedback from our residents, we share serious concerns about the potential impacts on Leawood and its citizens should a stadium be built on this property,” […]
3 months ago | 6 reads